Thursday, May 31, 2007

This past May 24th, 2007, The Salads opened the evening of the 30th anniversary party for Q107, Toronto's classic rock radio station. The headliners were a reunited Max Webster (featuring Kim Mitchell, of course), and other acts included Honeymoon Suite, Alannah Myles, Sass Jordan, Goddo, and David Wilcox. Quite the Canadian rock extravaganza! And the entire show was live to air! We also brought The Salads' original drummer, Grant Taylor, back for this special show, and had our new drummer, Legs, play our only original tune at the end of our set. It was quite the experience!

So a friend found a recording of the show online, and I thought I'd put it up here for those of you who missed it. When I find out if we are "allowed" to add it to our website (www.thesalads.com), I'll post it there too. ;) It's just great because we may not do that again, and if you listen to the very end of the recording, you can hear the audio from a video they played of Kim Mitchell giving props to The Salads...What an honour from such a cool dude!

Check out our ass-kickin' classic rock medley here for now....Enjoy!

P.S. By the way, that picture of the crowd was taken during our set, and the 2 circles on the photo are to pin-point the location of The Salads' good friend and albums/website designer, Dennis Vidaic, and his friend, Paul. Dennis sent me this picture... Thanks, Dennis! ;)

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Da Grassroots consist of 3 djs/producers from Toronto: Mr.Murray, Mr.Attic, and Swiff. In 1999 they released this cd, "Passage Through Time", on Conception Records. To the best of my knowledge, this cd has been discontinued for a few years now, which is unfortunate because, in my opinion, it's one of the best Canadian hip-hop albums released!

The album features a wack of Canadian MCs like Arcee, Mr.Roam, Saukrates, Choclair, Fatski, Thrust, G-Knight, Ghetto Concept, k-os, Marvel, and more!

Monday, May 28, 2007

In 1994 they were still on tour in support of their 1992 release, "Angel Dust". This is a bootleg of tracks from a few different shows in the US in 1994 (The cd doesn't specify where exactly). It features the band line-up from the "Angel Dust" album, which was Roddy Bottum (keys), Billy Gould (bass), Mike Bordin (drums), and Mike Patton (vocals). I particularly enjoy the recording of "We Care A Lot" as Patton wasn't on the original recording, and is way better than that other dude on "Introduce Yourself"....no offense other dude...Does anyone know what he's up to these days anyways?

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

My good friends in the mighty mighty Pocket Dwellers have put their mighty project on an "indefinite hault". This is very unfortunate, but so it goes. I hope to see, and perform with the Dwellers again sometime in my lifetime, as they are all wonderfully talented guys, and without a doubt, one of my favourite Canadian bands!

The Dwellers put out this dope mixtape in 2005 called "Conception: Vol.2" (*feat. Skitz on "The Work Out"; also on The Salads' song "Why It Gotta Be?"). The mixtape was out to kinda help promote their upcoming Bluenote records release, "Pd-Atrics" (*feat. yours truly on the song "Want To Be") in 2005. (I'm still trying to get my hands on a copy of "Conception: Vol.1". I need to bug the boys about that! And that Salads remix NIgel is working on! :) All in time.)

Anyways, if you don't know the Dwellers, check out this mixtape and go hunt down their albums ["Digitally Organic" in 2000, "Lifecheck:Live!" in 2003 (*NIgel shouts out The Salads towards the end of the song "Eye Of The Storm"), and "Pd-Atrics" in 2005],...You won't regret it. Walk right. Level headed. Pocket Dwellers MOVE! ;) Miss you guys!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

I recently caught the second of two shows that Amy Winehouse did in Toronto at the Mod Club (thanks to my good buddy, Darrin Pfeiffer) and even though the show was somewhat short, it was VERY sweet. She has The Dap Kings band backing her up, who are so deadly, and even though Amy drunkenly stumbled through her speeches between songs, her singing voice was awesome!

Check out this internet show recording from a show Amy did this year in Amsterdam at The Paradiso on February 8th. With the exception of a few songs, it's pretty similar to the set I saw in Toronto. It's a good one! Enjoy!

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Back in 2002, we (The Salads) were looking for someone to record our upcoming cd, "Fold A to B'. After hearing the new major label debut album from our good friends in a heavy rock band called Headstrong (fka Bomb32), we were very impressed by the sound of their recordings. We soon discovered that a man by the name of Dan Brodbeck had recorded their album in London, Ontario at EMAC studios....and after contacting Dan ourselves, we also discovered that he was already a fan of The Salads, and very interested in recording our new material. We were stoked! We ended up recording both "Fold A to B" (2003), and "The Big Picture" (2006) with Dan at EMAC.

So if it wasn't for this amazing album by Headstrong, both of those Salads cds may not have ended up like they did. Unfortunately, after some lengthy touring through the US, and plenty of label/management problems, Headstrong packed it in and called it quits before a sophomore cd could be completed. On the upside of things, the band DID record 5 demos for new songs at EMAC before things fell apart.

I really believe this album didn't get the push it deserved, because it's so good, and it seems like so few people are even aware of it's existence. So here you go.....Headstrong's debut, self-titled cd...PLUS the final 5 demos!

Friday, May 11, 2007

This is one of the best reggae compilations available...and it happens to be the soundtrack to a fantastic motion picture that is a fictional story with real people playing themselves. It is somewhat of a 'who's who' in the world of roots reggae from Jamaica...and I LOVE it. If you don't know, now ya know...

Thursday, May 10, 2007

My first blog on here on Thursday, December 14, 2006 was entitled "Fishbone is red hot!", and it included a download of their cover of Sly Stone's "Everybody Is A Star" from this same album "FISHBONE & The Familyhood Nextperience Presents The Psychotic Friends Nuttwerx" released on Hollywood Records in 2000.

I've discovered over the years that even many a Fishbone fan is not really familiar with this album. This album was Fishbone's final major label attempt, and Hollywood dropped the ball BIG TIME. Not a single video for any song on the album, and in my opinion, every song on the album is a potential single! So on went the 'Bone with their indie label success!

If you don't already have this album in your collection, you MUST add it NOW:

So as some of you may have noticed, I've been getting more in the mood of linking y'all with full albums instead of just single songs...so it's safe to say, you'll be seeing more of that from this music blog o' mine. Keep on the look-out....I've got a crazy, diverse collection of cds!

Here's one that is long since discontinued. The band is called RACE. They were basically from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I saw them live countless times in Toronto, and they fuckin' forced the attention of everyone in the room...ALL the time. So dope! I also remember hanging out with a few of the guys in the band at a friend's BBQ a few years ago. Great dudes! This self-titled album is an old-school Canadian ragga-metal masterpiece....Take yourself back...

For some reason, there really isn't anything online about Race or this album. If you can find anything...pictures specifically...drop me a fuckin' line! :)

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

If you are a fan of Sade....or Paul Nice.....or mash-ups...or hip-hop....or just good music, you should check out this album DJ Paul Nice put out called "Sade Blends".....obviously a cd of Sade remixes and mash-ups.... It's DOPE too!

Thursday, May 3, 2007

My good buddy, Ryan Somers aka/fka Fritz Tha Cat, has recently added the full album of his latest musical project, OK Cobra (DJ Recordface & Fritz), as a free download through his blog!

Now, if you don't know about this OK Cobra album, you better recognize and appreciate the fact that these dudes are GIVING away this shit, (because they want to and they can) because this album is dope! Excellent lyrics and vocal delivery by RyRy, and the beats are nicely laced with many influences to satisfy all hip-hop fans at some point during the first listen of the album. It's some hot shit yo....Get on it! A few of my favourite tracks are: "Child In Rhyme", "JuggerNots", "Hush", "On The Bus"...shit man, I could go on...you see?! :)

OK Cobra is off on tour now in Germany with DJ Vadim...which is very cool! First time to Europe and loving it, I'm sure! Send them some love...

P.S. Don't forget to check out Ryan's latest book also, "In Search of...Divine Styler", a collection of zines that helped build Canadian hip-hop and beyond in a big way....Recognize yo. :)